# Can I teach myself to be a doctor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075 "2009-05-20T15:32:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rumor\_Watkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@Rumor\_Watkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rumor_Watkins)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075/41 "2009-05-21T20:50:34Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Sorry to butt in, but I was going to ask for clarification on why \*\*Rumor \*\*was out of line, too. > > From the Rules for Posting thread: > S/he didn’t say the person was self-aggrandizing or a pile of poo, s/he said their \*argument \*was. That seems like a pretty big distinction to me, and in line with the guidelines that are posted. If one isn’t allowed to insult arguments one things are stupid, especially in GQ, someone should please update the rules to explicitly reflect this. Thank you. I didn’t want to drag out the argument anymore, but I guess you did for me. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075/42 "2009-05-21T21:03:58Z")
Yeah, sorry to derail things here, folks, but I think clarification of something potentially bannable that could arguably be seen as acceptable given the way the rules are currently phrased is important. I mean, I have no problem if a mod/admin wants to update the rules to reflect that making insulting comments \*about arguments \*isn’t acceptable in GQ (whereas it might be in GD, for example), but right now all I see is someone getting yelled at without being outside the stated guidelines, and I don’t want it to happen to me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075/43 "2009-05-21T21:17:53Z")
You also have the problem of physical exam skills. That’s part of what you get in the bedside-training referred to by others. You can read all the descriptions you want of splenomegaly or a pleural rub but until you have a patient with that finding you’re not going to truly get it. That’s why the patient with interesting findings often becomes a sort-of medical tourist attraction. During my training it was fairly common for an attending to come tell me that I should come look at this patient with somthing interesting on physical exam. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075/44 "2009-05-21T23:26:31Z")
As **Chief** has already pointed out, the major skill a doctor needs is being an effective clinician. And that can’t be learned effectively from books. For that, one needs to see, hear, query, touch, and evaluate a _lot_ of patients, observe what test results are associated with their particular situations, choose treatment regimens for them, see how they do on those regimens, especially in the context of whether or not they are compliant, see how they do on other (or no regimens), follow them closely day by day (sometimes hour by hour) when they are very sick, follow the course of their disease regularly year after year to see what happens, confer with other doctors about how their patients do, go to seminars and compare notes and studies, lose a few patients (to death, dissatisfaction, etc), deal with the angry ones, the dying ones, the worried well, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-teach-myself-to-be-a-doctor/497075.md?page=2)